Sermon delivered March 13, 1999

by Pastor Donald J Gettys

McDonald Road Seventh-day Adventist Church

Biblical quotations are from the New International
Version unless otherwise noted.

Adam's Bitter Curse

We are thankful that we made here this morning, through the
blizzard, typical
Southern Tennessee blizzard. Well, maybe we will get one this
year, we don't know.
Adam and Eve didn't have any snow in the Garden of Eden. Part of
the curse, I
suppose, was snow. And yet it is a blessing. Especially when
you don't slip or fall
down in it.

I would like to talk today about Adam's bitter curse.

The curse did not come instantly to Eve when she ate the
forbidden apple. She
touched it and did not die or even get sick. And she thought,
"Wow! This is good
fruit." So she imagined that she was entering a higher state of
intelligence. She ate
it and instead of dying she actually imagined that she felt more
intelligent. She
seemed to feel a vivifying power and imagined herself entering a
higher state of
existence. That surely proves that you can't go by feelings!
Never. We must go
by the sure word of God.

She ran to Adam with an armful of forbidden fruit. She wanted to
share some of
this good tasting fruit. She told him everything. And you know,
wives should tell
everything. Husbands should tell everything. We need to
communicate. Sadness
came over his face. But... after a time he realized that Eve was
still alive. She
wasn't dead. She had eaten the apple. She should be dead,
right? And she was
just as beautiful as she was before her sin. In fact, she
expressed even greater love
for him than before she ate the apple. She was still wearing her
robe of light. How
come she was wearing that robe of light? Why was she still
alive? Well, we'll talk
about that later. There was no sign of death on her. Adam
thought... You know,
maybe, could the words of the serpent possibly be true?

He seized the apple and quickly devoured it. It was tasty. And
he too seemed to
imagine or feel a special increased knowledge and judgment. But
soon the
ramifications of his sin began to weigh heavily upon his him. He
felt guilty.
Another symptom that Adam noticed was the temperature. Adam and
Eve felt a chill
in the air. They had never known cold or heat on their body.
They stood there
shivering. What are these goose bumps? And Adam probably
thought, "All this
shivering, I must be dying. This is a symptom of death, maybe."

Adam and Eve started to experience other symptoms. The loss of
peace and an
uneasiness concerning the future. They were worried. They were
concerned.
Suddenly they noticed that the beautiful covering and protecting
robe of light which
had enshrouded them from the moment of their creation was fading
away.

The glory flickered, and went out. Extinguished by sin. There
they stood, exposed
and bare. Naked before the elements. Is nakedness a good thing?
Not publicly.
Things were falling apart. They had not died yet, but they could
tell something bad
was taking place. They decided they needed a covering so they
went looking for
something to cover their nakedness. Now there were no WalMarts,
no clothing
stores there. Where would you go for clothes? Well, they found
a fig tree. Why
would they choose a fig tree? Perhaps it was because the leaves
were large and
strong. They sewed its leaves together to cover their shame.

The true character of sin was becoming known. We can never
underestimate the
terrible consequences that come from just one fling with sin.
Sin does have
consequences. You can choose it, but beware.

Adam and Eve's very natures were now depraved. And sin also
harmed heaven.
The news of the fall spread through the universe. Every harp was
hushed. Angels
cast their crowns to the ground in sorrow. It was a
disappointing time. It was a
dark day.

Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
LORD God as
he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid
from the LORD
God among the trees of the garden. They got back in there
behind the
thickest brush they could find.

Notice here, that the very first act on God's part, was to come
seeking Adam and
Eve. Not so that He could destroy them. Not to even condemn them
at first. He
came to ask them a question. That proves you're innocent before
you're found
guilty or until you admit guilt. So He came looking for them.
That says something
good about God. He did not send a bolt of fierce lightning from
the darkening sky
to vaporize Adam and Eve out of existence. He came searching for
them so they
could talk things over.

Genesis 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man, (Who did
He call to?
The man.) "Where are you?" God singled out the one who
was most
guilty. And who was the most guilty, Eve or Adam? Did I here a
man say Adam?
Most men say that Eve was the guilty one, most women say Adam.
Adam was more
guilty because he was responsible for both their actions. God
chose his
responsibility because He talked to Adam first.

Verse 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because
I was naked; so I hid." It's a good thing to hide of you're
naked. Do we ever
have to be afraid of God? Only if we are running from God.

Verse 11,12 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten
from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man
said, "The woman
you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I
ate it."

Would you expect Adam to have that response? Does Adam reflect
sorrow here?
Does he say, "I am sorry. I completely blew it. I ask for
forgiveness." Do you see
any confession, do you see any repentance here? Just blame:
That's all we see.
And who does Adam blame? He blames God, really, because he said,
"That woman
that YOU gave me. You gave me a bummer for a bride. I never
asked for all her.
Things were going well when it was just me and the animals. We
were having a
good time. I named them all, and they didn't bite." Why do we
have to blame
others when our real problem is self? Adam was more to blame
than Eve. He was
the one that was more guilty. It is like the skunk telling the
possum that he has bad
breath.

Verse 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this
you have
done?" Has He condemned the woman? He says, "What have you
done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
"That serpent that
You put in the garden, he deceived me. That's the problem. That
serpent." Eve
blamed the serpent. She said: "The Devil made me do it! I
couldn't help it. He
tricked me. It wasn't my fault. I was just out of the cradle of
creation. I was still
wet behind the ears."

Adam and Eve behaved pitifully. Instead of humbly confessing
their sins and
asking for forgiveness, they started casting blame. The blamed
everybody except
themselves, where the blame should really go.

God had to take action. He had created man with the power of
choice. His created
beings chose the ditch instead of the path to life. The
disobedient duo must be
disciplined.

But first God punished the snake: Genesis 3:14 So the LORD
God said to the
serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all
the livestock and
all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will
eat dust all the days
of your life."

Snakes were better flyers than crawlers. But here they were,
condemned to the dirt.
But never again would they sail through the air. Never again
would they illuminate
the skies. God clipped the snake's wings. God grounded the
Devil. Have you
youngsters ever been grounded? Does it feel like a long time
when your parents
say you can't go on a date because of what you did for one week.
Ah! My life is
ended! How long was the snake grounded? For life! And also for
all of his
offspring. From the most beautiful of all the creatures the
snake was now to
become the most detested of all creatures. From that moment all
snakes would be
feared and hated by both man and beast whereas they had been the
most admired.
Sin takes you down.

Before God pronounced the curse on mankind, He wanted to give
them hope. And
you could see hope. God surely must be an optimist. The
promise: Genesis 3:15
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his
heel."

Before they heard of the thorns and thistles they heard of Jesus.
They heard the
coming Redeemer. Isn't god good. He gives us hope before He
gives us the bitter
medicine. They heard how all that had been lost could one day be
regained
through Christ. Not only did His voice express that hope, but
nature also testified
to that possibility, the hope of redemption. The trees cast off
their leaves only to
be robed with fresher beauty in the spring. Every time you see a
springtime you
see hope, new life, resurrection. Then each new growth spoke of
salvation. Even
the weeds witnessed. If you look closely at each weed, what do
you see? You can
see tiny flowers on most weeds, beautiful signs that God's mercy
still exists among
the curse. Even okra has flowers! Amazing!

Now, Adam and Eve had technically grounded themselves. God
didn't ground them.
It was their freedom of choice. By sinning, they chose to live
under the
consequences of sin. And when you go out and sin don't say that
god has curse
you. Actually you decided to do that. When you sow okra seeds,
you're going to
get okra. So be careful what you sow.

Verse 16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your
pains in
childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your
desire will be for your
husband, and he will rule over you." You will be the weaker
sex.

I wonder if in the beginning, before sin, Adam and Eve were
equally strong or if she
was weaker. It seems to me like maybe they might have been the
same.

Verse 17,18 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your
wife and ate from
the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
cursed is the
ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your
life. So pain enters the picture. It will produce thorns
and thistles for
you, and you will eat the plants of the field." This implies
that plants were
added to their diet. Could it be that the original diet was
fruits, nuts and grains?
(see Genesis 1:29.) Seeds, basically. And plants were added
after the fall. I
suppose it could be.

Verse 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food
until you return to
the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to
dust you will
return."

Sin brought a whole train load of consequences. These
penalties included

cancer there is a lot of cancer today.

defects

hate

half of what we see today was probably caused because of the
curse.

they were separated from God.

they suffered... shame, guilt, pain, hard labor

death came. Physical and spiritual death as well

they lost the garden of Eden

they lost eternal life.

They lost a lot. We
should never have to have
a hospital. There should never be a doctor or a nurse. We
should be healthy all
of our lives.

Genesis 3:22,23 And the LORD God said, "The man has now
become like one
of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out
his hand and
take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So
the LORD God banished
him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had
been
taken. I imagine that when he went out and planted a garden
and all the little
weeds came up he was sick. How do you feel hoeing. What a row
to hoe that
Adam had. And we all reap from his curse, from his disobedience.

Fallen man has no idea what a vile thing that sin really is.
When you put sin in the
presence of Holy beings, it is detestable. We don't know how bad
sin is in God's
sight. A skunks whose smell is probably the worst of all the
animals probably think
he smells good. He doesn't think that he stinks. Adam could not
sense the
magnitude of his sin. He didn't know how repulsive it really was
in God's sight.
God had to evict Adam.

Verse 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east
side of the Garden
of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to
guard the way to
the tree of life.

Right here is the world's first motor vehicle. God drove Adam
and Eve out in a
"Fury". A small boy drew a picture of a car with a man driving
and two people in the
back seat. And his mother asked who the people were. And the
little boy said,
"That's God driving and Adam and Eve out of the garden." They
had to be evicted.

Why did they have to be evicted? Well, the tree of life was in
that garden. And one
condition to a perpetual existence for human beings is a
continual feeding on the
tree of life. If you're not eating that you're not going to live
forever. That ought to
have a spiritual lesson for us today, because one condition of
strong spirituality is
a continued feeding on the life that is found in the Bible. I
want to tell you, today,
that the leaves of this book are equivalent to the leaves of the
tree of life. They are
for the healing of the nations. Open this up and read it.
Continual feeding on the
Bible. That's what we need.

Access to the tree of life must be curtailed so sin would not be
perpetuated. Cut
off from that life-giving tree, man's vitality would gradually
diminish until eventually
mankind would become extinct. The human race will fade away
without that tree
of life. And I sort of wonder if the angels of heaven that fell
with Lucifer, since they
don't have access to the tree of life, can they live forever?
So, cut off from that life-
giving tree man would eventually be dead. So Adam and his wife
packed up and
moved out. Their new address was the land of sin and woe.

As time went by on the outside of the Garden of Eden things were
vastly different
than they were on the inside. The curse was out there. And they
noticed there
were seasons. Probably there were four seasons. The fall of the
year came upon
the guilty pair. Adam and Even began to notice the trees started
dying. Now, they
didn't know anything about spring, did they. So they probably
thought at that point
because the whole world was dying, all the trees are going to be
dead, we will soon
be dead and all this will soon be over and what a shame it is!
The atmosphere
which was once so mild became colder. As they noticed the fading
flowers and
falling leaves Adam and Eve mourned more deeply than we now
grieve over our
dead. It really hurt them to see how their sin had caused all
this death, all this woe
throughout all of created nature.

When the magnificent trees cast off their leaves, they realized
their personal sin had
altered every living thing. Those tree also lost their robe,
their covering, every thing
lost because of Adam and Eve's sin. Their sin was causing the
death of all creation.
It was a heavy burden. Only back there in the Garden of Eden
could they see over
the fence or over the wall that there was still an area that was
unaffected by sin.
Those tree never did turn.

Death of mankind and vegetation was not the only byproduct of
sin. Adam and Eve
rebelled against God. Sin caused all animal creation to follow
suit. Adam started
to notice the rebellious behavior of all these animals. Now,
just think, if you lived
there and all of a sudden the animals started killing each other,
they started eating
each other. That must have been a sad sight for Adam and Eve.

Imagine the first time Adam saw a wolf eating the insides of a
lamb. Imagine how
that must have affected him. He must have reacted violently. He
must have at first
tried to break up some of those awful slaughters. But he soon
realized it's just the
way it's going to be. It's awful here. He must have hated it,
hated himself. He
soon realized that his personal sin had altered the very nature
of the entire world.
And it would even spill the blood of Jesus Christ Himself. A
bloody mess because
of sin. I'm glad I wasn't Adam, but I won't want to stand up
here and condemn
Adam because I would have done the same thing. That's what we're
told. So I'm
not here to condemn Adam.

The Garden of Eden remained on earth until the time of the flood.
Just prior to the
flood the Garden of Eden was taken up to heaven where it is
today. The same
garden, the same vines that Adam and Eve trained, is still there.
Everything is still
there except Adam and Eve, of course. I wonder if snakes still
fly around up there.
So the Garden of Eden is still there preserved for our future
enjoyment when we get
to heaven. You are going to see the Garden of Eden some day.
All this will be
restored. Adam and Eve are going to get to see the Garden of
Eden again. Do you
think Adam and Eve are going to be saved? We're going to talk
about that next
week. We're going to talk about "Adam and Eve's Beautiful
Conversion." And It's
right here in Genesis 3. When we see the Garden of Eden some day
it will be more
gloriously embellished than it was in the beginning if that could
ever be. It's going
to be marvelous. (Patriarchs and Prophets, p.62 - EG
White).

And you will get to see the Garden of Eden yourself. And you
ticket to the Garden
of Eden is Jesus Christ. Your relationship with your Savior. If
you, like Enoch, are
walking with God every day you're going to be there. If you're
eating of the leaves
of the tree of life which is the Bible (It's the closest thing we
have.) you're going to
be there. If you have that saving relationship with Jesus Christ
you can be there.